New Age-Style Haven Flourishes in Warehouse

Inside an unmarked, dimly lit warehouse in Santa Monica on a recent Sunday morning, hundreds of people in brightly colored clothing gathered to hug, shout, sing, hear words of inspiration and chant affirmations.

“My heart-space is a wide opening for the love of God!” a tall, dark-haired woman in an ivory pantsuit exclaimed from a stage decorated with flowers and a white screen dancing with rays of pastel lights.

“My heart-space is a wide opening for the love of God!” the 1,000 congregants repeated.

This is the Agape Church of Religious Science, a popular, New Age-style haven that draws an eclectic crowd each Sunday with an upbeat message of hope and unity.

The two Sunday morning services are virtual love-ins, and standing room only, drawing about 2,500 congregants--a broad mix of ages, ethnicities and religious backgrounds. They feature affirmations, meditation, preaching, a 150-voice choir and the requisite ‘90s-style hugging. Celebrities, film industry people and 12-step followers abound. Sugar Ray Leonard attended his first Agape service recently;Dyan Cannon and Ben Vereen are regulars.

Before the 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services, half a dozen parking monitors direct the flow of cars (including a fair number of BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes) through the crammed parking lot and steer them away from the Santa Monica Health Club lot next door. Congregants gather between services for church-sponsored coffee, juice, bagels and cream cheese.

“It’s cleared up everything in my life--my acting, my relationships,” said Marina del Rey resident Arthur Roberts, a 48-year-old actor who was raised in Judaism and has been attending Agape for about a year. “My parents are gone, I have no brothers, sisters or children. Here I feel comfortable; it’s like a family. People are friendly and warm.”

Agape, which means “unconditional love” in Greek, is one of nearly 200 Religious Science churches, also called Science of Mind, throughout the world. Founded seven years ago, it is the largest of six Religious Science churches in the Los Angeles area.

At Agape, the inner spirit is emphasized: “All that you need is within you,” the spirited choir sang as congregants stood, raising their arms toward heaven. Newcomers wear purple ribbons and are greeted with a rousing ovation. Hugs and “love notes” are delivered by the ushers.

But church leaders reject the New Age label. And, in fact, Religious Science is nothing new. The denomination was founded in 1926 by Earnest Holmes, a New England metaphysician who settled in California and studied all existing philosophies and religions before developing his philosophy.

Agape founder, the Rev. Michael Beckwith, described Holmes’ concept as one that encompasses the “fundamental truths of all major religions.” Holmes wrote: “We believe that the kingdom of heaven is within man and that we experience this kingdom to the degree that we become conscious of it.”

It is this simple message, that people can find happiness within themselves, that accounts for much of the appeal of Agape and other Science of Mind churches.

“There is a movement of people wanting to feel empowered from within,” said Beckwith, a charismatic preacher affectionately called Rev. Michael. “They are seeing that focusing on what’s out there doesn’t work.”

Agape began with 20 people in Beckwith’s living room seven years ago. By the middle of this year, more than 10,000 people had signed the congregation’s guest books.

The church leases its half-acre warehouse, which seats about 1,000, and the smaller building next door, which houses church offices. The warehouse also contains the Quiet Mind Bookstore, which sells not only metaphysical books but candles, American Indian art, jewelry, cards and recordings of the church choir.

“We’ve dedicated ourselves to being the kind of church where people like to go, where people can come together,” Beckwith said from his office, which is cluttered with plants, an aquarium with three goldfish--one with fat cheeks and named Dizzy Gillespie--and books ranging from Science of Mind philosophy to Ralph Waldo Emerson poems. Pictures on the walls include Beckwith’s teen-age daughter, George Washington Carver and Jesus.

People are increasingly drawn to non-mainstream religions such as Science of Mind largely because of the warmth and acceptance it offers, said Donald Miller, an associate professor of religion at USC.

“People are experiencing an intimacy with each other that they’re not finding in the wider culture, that in some ways reflects the dysfunction of primary institutions like the family,” Miller said.

Beckwith, who was raised an “agnostic Methodist,” says he was drawn to Science of Mind for the simple truths it offered.

“I became disillusioned, materialistic,” said Beckwith, 41, who is from Bethesda, Md. “I had a spiritual experience and shifted my point of view, which led me to see things differently. I embraced Religious Science because I felt it embraced the truths of all major religions and gives people tools to grow. It’s a religious synthesis.”

The Science of Mind philosophy accepts Jesus as the son of God, but it also says that “we are all sons and daughters of God--we can be what He is. It is an inward process,” Beckwith said.

Beckwith was ordained through the United Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles after seven years of training. The church also sponsors a four-year program that teaches and qualifies practitioners who act as spiritual therapists and aides to ministers.

Beckwith’s assistant, Rebecca Clemons, who is in her fourth year of practitioner training, was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church.

“I had gone on a deep inner search of my own, and when I came here I felt like I was coming home,” said Clemons, who lives in Santa Monica and has been a member of Agape for four years. “It’s not a religion. It gives me back myself, gives me the opportunity to really grow and be all I can be with the support of people on the same journey who want to be their very best. There is space here for everything and anyone.”